Ryuho

Ryuho was an Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier that was launched on 16 November 1933. She was built as the submarine tender Taigei in 1933, but she was taken out of service on 12 December 1941, rebuilt, and recommissioned as the aircraft carrier Ryuho on 30 November 1942. She was small, slow, and poorly-built, and she was mostly used as an aircraft transport and for training purposes. Nevertheless, she fought at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and she was attacked by US Navy aircraft near Kure on 19 March 1945, the last Japanese carrier to venture outside the home waters of Japan. The flight deck bulged upward between the two elevators, the first boiler was punctured by a bomb fragment, the stern settled two meters into the water, and a raging fire broke out aboard the ship. 20 crewmen were killed and 30 were wounded, and she was moored and abandoned off Etajima. On 24 and 28 July 1945, she was attacked by more USN planes, further immobilizing her. She was scrapped in 1946.